Going deGoogled
I am considering buying a phone that is already deGoogled, and also converting an Android phone I bought several years ago to Ubuntu Touch.
I recently saw material about the Murena phone in an article on how to choose a smartphone on the French organisation UFC-QueChoisir’s website www.
quechoisir.org (the equivalent of the UK’s Which?). I myself am more attracted by the phones in the Volla range. The latest model offers its own deGoogled OS, and the option of also downloading Ubuntu Touch as a second OS. Having the option of switching to and from the Ubuntu Touch OS enables the use of the phone as a computer when connected to a keyboard, mouse and monitor.
As far as I can see, the options for saying goodbye to Google include at least eight options: A. New phones
1. Volla, as above
2. Murena
3. Fairphone
4. FX Technology, the Pro1 X phone,
5. Pine64, for phone and tablets
6. Purism, for the Librem 5 phone B. Converting phones
7. Rob Braxman, for deGoogled phones
8. UBports
This list shows that there are many ways to get away from Google’s control over users’ phones, data and privacy.
LXF readers will be interested to read your guidance on whether and how to use F-Droid, MicroG and Aurora, and about apps to replace those that can’t be used without surveillance by Google, Apple, Microsoft, Huawei, Facebook and so on. These types of questions are bound to arise in the minds of potential users. Victor Leser
Neil says…
Hopefully, this month’s review of the Murena phone – which is based on the Fairphone 4 – should go some
way to helping answer your questions. We’ll be looking at Murena down the line, too. It is a complex area and it’s not helped by the fact that some people just want a straight Android replacement while others are looking for the unicorn of full Linux on mobile devices.